Lecturers threaten further strikes over pay

Thousands
of lecturers and support staff at colleges say they will strike again if they
do not get a better pay offer.

Last
month, strike action by 30,000 lecturers and support staff forced 40 further
education colleges in England to close.

Three
unions representing staff at further education colleges – the Association of
Teachers and Lecturers, Unison, and Natfhe (the trade union for lecturers and
researchers) – say there will be a strike on 30 January if employers do not
raise their 2.3 per cent pay offer.

Barry
Lovejoy, the joint secretary for the trade unions involved said a recent £1.2bn
funding boost should be filtering down to staff.

Lecturers
say they want the gap between their pay and that of school teachers to be
closed and want college support staff to be paid in line with people in similar
posts in local government.

Unions
are meeting the employers – represented by the Association of Colleges – for
talks on 13 January.